Green Acres debate

Green Acres debate:

Yesterday, we had a date with our driver, Stuart, to see the area where Dexter is going to be working. He picked us up at 11 and we covered the less than 15 mile trip with no incidents. He is such a good guide! He gave us history and trivia all along the way.

At lunch, we were discussing everything from literature to quantum physics. Guess which conversation I contributed to? Haha!
When I asked Stuart to actually spell the name of the place he was telling us about because I couldn’t understand what he was saying, he told us about his visiting a friend in Florida and as he was leaving he told her he would come around in the morning to “knock her up”…which meant knock on the door to him. Imagine her face!

The big topic and purpose of our lunch today was to discuss the possibility of our renting Stuart and his wife’s flat (picture posted is the view of the Thames from the flat’s garden) so that they can travel for a year or two. Currently the plan is to wait until after their son’s wedding in April, but Stuart is perfectly willing and ready to go in a couple of weeks. If we are interested, he is going to see if his wife would go ahead and retire now instead of waiting. We’ll see!

We toured through the little villages of Richmond and Hampton. So quaint and everything is a short bus ride or walk away! We could get into the city within 35 minutes by train.

 London's National Physical Laboratory, where Dexter will be working is on one side of Bushy Park and Stuart’s flat is on the other. If we were to rent from him, Dexter could cycle to work for .5 mile through the park.

We didn't have time to go back to our flat after our day outside the city, so we went directly to our dinner reservation at Fifteen. We love Jamie Oliver’s concept of taking young people, in need of a break in life, and offering them the experience of learning to work in the restaurant business. All of the profits from Fifteen go towards the apprentice program. The food was fantastic! Our table talk tonight, other than about the food, was where do we want to live during our time here in London…city life? Or village life?

First days in London

I think I blog better in my head than here. Wish I'd had something to write with while we were on the plane. I think I was pretty brilliant then! We'll see. Hopefully, I'll improve. Now with apologies out of the way...

A driver picked us up at Heathrow holding our names on a sign. When is that ever going to happen again? Sorry, Joanna, I didn't get a pic. Very lame on my part.
Stuart, our driver, was an interesting gentleman. He and his son own this transport business and conduct tours of London and the surrounding area. He also teaches history to high school students trying to pass their exit exams.

On our way to the flat, just on the other side of Hyde Park, we were in traffic but at a standstill. I felt a bump on my side of the van. Stuart asked,"did I just get hit?"  "Yes, this lady just hit the side with her mirror", I said. He stuck his head out of the window and yelled at her, "what's the matter with you, why did you do that?!" Then, he turned back into the van and said, "such is life!" and we kept driving.

Tomorrow, when Stuart comes back on another transport job, he is going to take us to Teddington to show us around and also take us to his flat. During our conversation from the airport, it came out that he lives only a five minute bike ride through Bushy Park (the smallest of the Royal Parks) to Dexter's work. He seemed interested in renting his place to us so that he could take off to travel for a year or two.

We are enjoying living in the West End of London, but it may be better for us to be closer to Dexter's work. (Quieter too.)  We could get into the city easily enough within 35-45 minutes with all the public transport there is here.
What do you say, those of you who will visit?